Washington, DC is the center of our federal government, which one might believe would lead it to being the one place where a concerted effort is made to keep crime to a minimum. After all, it's not like politicians typically appreciate the competition.
Yet anyone who has bothered to actually look knows better.
DC is a terrible place if you want to live in peace and quiet, primarily because the city is terrible about dealing with crime. What's more, they've been hostile to firearm ownership for ages. Let's not forget that Heller was a case involving the District of Columbia and their restrictions on firearm storage.
While they can't get away with that nonsense anymore, they're never afraid to find new ways to restrict guns, especially that might follow the letter of the law or a court ruling, if not the spirit.
And for all those people who work in DC? Yeah, they're getting screwed.
Amid an explosion of violent carjackings and armed thefts in the District’s downtown, workers who have permits to carry concealed handguns are still forced to go unarmed throughout the city.
Second Amendment advocates say the District’s expansive restrictions on where citizens can legally bear arms are contributing to the city’s crime problem.
“Obviously, the laws in Washington, D.C., are not favorable to gun rights, or self-defense or self-protection. And these carjackings are a great example of how stupid these laws are,” Second Amendment Foundation Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb told The Washington Times.
“We’ve seen around the country where people are allowed to carry concealed firearms where they’ve prevented carjackings in large numbers. But this isn’t going to happen in Washington DC, with the laws they have in place,” he said.
The crime epidemic infecting the nation’s capital includes a rash of carjackings, but gun rights advocates say the widespread restrictions on guns in parking lots and garages keep many motorists unarmed when driving to and from work.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the number of carjackings has increased for the sixth consecutive year with 959 reported incidents in 2023.
The city’s leaders insist that strict gun laws are a boon to public safety.
Of course, the city's leaders will always claim gun laws are a boon to public safety, but who are they considering the public here?
The gun-free zone laws are keeping honest, decent people disarmed while the criminals don't seem to be the least bit perturbed by them in the least.
Now, many of these workers are employed in secure buildings where it's unlikely a bad actor will come in and hurt them. These are gun-free zones that often go to great lengths to enforce those rules, including the use of metal detectors to keep them out. Sure, someone can probably get around them if they wanted to badly enough, but it's a far cry more secure than most gun-free zones in this country.
And what we see is what I've always had an issue with on gun-free zones. It's not whether or not someone needs a gun in that particular place that is an issue--no, need isn't a factor, but bear with me for a second--but that they might need that firearm literally anyplace else they go that day.
If I'm going to the local courthouse, which is a gun-free zone, I'm often going to plan my day around it. I don't trust leaving a gun in the car, so I go disarmed, much like this DC employees do.
These laws that are a "boon to public safety" make it so these people are victimized by criminals with no regard for any laws, much less gun control regulations.
So yeah, I question who these city leaders think of as "the public" because it's definitely not the people who are getting hosed in this whole situation.
